


Emotions are for the weak

by chillychocolate



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron)-centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-17 05:18:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17554100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chillychocolate/pseuds/chillychocolate
Summary: Basically Haggar does some magic on Lance and turns his emotional pain into physical pain, which causes ALL sorts of problems for our teamInspired by @teenagecoran 's feelings au on Instagram, so definitely check that out! Their art is great :)





	Emotions are for the weak

It had all started on Aspfar. A vibrant yet desolate planet, emitting an air of long-ago tragedy onto the five visitors who ventured upon its surface. The paladins were sent to rid the area of Galran activity; the brutes had erected immense machinery upon the planet’s surface to extract the off-the-charts levels of quintessence that the planet contained. Upon arrival, they could see something was very wrong…

-

Aspfar was a beautiful planet, based off of the ten-thousand-year-old photos Coran and Allura had shown them. Almost reminiscent of the chocolate waterfall room in Willy Wonka, Lance thought. Every colour was so bright it was overwhelming, a cacophony of hues that confused the eyes arranged in stripes that followed the contours of the landscape. The land that was visible seemed plastic or fake. 

Most of the scene was dominated by water (except it was a peach colour, so some type of liquid, at least). Lakes for miles and miles, the flat and serene surface lying unbroken by disturbances. It seemed like the residents, who looked pretty humanoid by alien standards, kept a healthy distance from it. Lance could see why; there was a faint glow hovering above the surface, and he could imagine that anything that made contact with it would be instantly vaporised. Coran confirmed this. 

That’s why landing on the deserted planet (spare the genocidal visitors) was such a shock. No natives, no houses, no trace of there ever being a civilisation along these beautiful shores. The curvatures of the land had been levelled out completely, most likely to make Galran access to the machinery more convenient.

The machinery… The paladins had been expecting machinery. The peach-coloured lakes were infused with raw quintessence, this natural bounty invaluable to anyone cruel enough to exploit it. They had been expecting machinery extracting the quintessence. Even the colossal size didn’t shock them.

They hadn’t been expecting the grinding gears and pumping pistons to be infused with magic. Dark magic. Haggar’s magic. 

She was here.

***

“Crap,” muttered Pidge as she observed the purple aura jumping around the Galran tech, spiking like lightning. 

“Language.” Shiro reprimanded over the comms from the Castle of Lions. 

“Haggar’s here, Shiro.” Keith explained.

“Shit.”

“What do we do now?” Lance asked. “This planet is more heavily guarded than we planned for.”

“It just means that whatever they’re doing is more valuable to the Galran Empire. If we defeat Haggar and take out this base it’s killing two birds with one stone. We have the element of surprise – Haggar isn’t expecting us – this opportunity is too good to waste.” Keith stated confidently.

“Still, shouldn’t we re-strategize? Remember, Haggar has magic! We shouldn’t be running in there blind.” The red paladin argued.

Keith’s expression hardened, his temper flaring like a roaring flame. “We’re not running in blind! We know that Haggar’s there, we know about her magic. We need to attack as quickly as possible to maintain our element of surprise!”

Allura stepped forward. “I’m on Keith’s side here, Lance. We already know what Haggar is capable of, and what her magic can do. Now is the time to strike.” She turned her head to Keith and nodded sharply. “Lead the way.”

As they all made their way down the flattened landscape, Lance felt a knot in his chest, a heaviness weighing down his melancholy heart like an anchor. A monotonous thought pulsed in his head, an imperturbable reminder of how quickly his friends had brushed him off, without sparing his idea a second thought. He accepted Keith was the leader now, welcomed it even, yet his input still held value… right? He’d only offered up his opinion because each time someone from their team had faced Haggar she’d revealed a new ability. Her teleportation had meant that she had even eluded Shiro’s almost Herculean attacks, and whilst they all were skilful in combat (especially Allura and Keith) their current team seemed to emit an air of amateurish naivety in their formation and teamwork (due to, no doubt, a lack of experience). Maybe if they had decided to go back to the castle and think through their plan again… Lance mentally kicked himself. They’d be fine. He trusted in his team, and whilst inexperience was a minor setback, with any luck it would be five against one. Their objection was probably nothing personal, just a bad idea on his part. With a decisive nod, he resolved to do better next time. 

Lance snapped out of his daze when they reached within half a mile of the base. It was essentially an immense ship that had landed, with different machines erected around it, all connected to the central ship. Purple magic visibly coursed through the contraptions. 

“Alright team,” Shiro’s voice abruptly started through the comms, making them all jump. “Remember, everyone split off to cover your section of the base. Stay low and take out as many sentries as possible but try not to break any of the machinery as it could set off an alarm that would draw defensive squadrons to your location. When one of you finds Haggar, don’t alert her to your presence. Send a signal to your location and everyone will gather there, then coordinate a surprise attack. Good luck!”

With noises of acknowledgement, the five paladins separated to reach their separate parts of the base. Lance’s section was over on the other side, so he snuck through the machines, weaving in and out of towering, black structures. On his way he spotted a few sentries standing guard, so as sneakily as possible he shot them and dragged their limp bodies out of sight. His mood improved as he shimmied past drills and cranes – he felt like a ninja and childlike pride was entertaining him for the time being. 

He continued to take out sentries with his bayard, opting to use the sword as it meant, being up close, he could dispose of the body more efficiently. Until a sight made his good mood crumble away like stray rocks that precede a rockslide. A cloaked figure, hunched over like she had been snapped in half, stood in front of a drill, her gnarled hand resting on its sleek surface. From her weathered hands sprung violet forks of lightning, illuminating what hid just behind the lip of her hood, confirming what he already knew. As if any movement would give him away, he slowly raised his right arm to press a button on his helmet, sending a signal to his team. 

‘The witch’

Keith was the first to arrive, joining him in his hiding spot of behind a wide, metal pillar. Lance signalled to him, not daring to speak, trying to convey that he would try to gain a high position from which he could support the team as their sharpshooter. After a few attempts, Keith seemed to get what he was trying to say and nodded. Lance started his ascent, moving further away to climb on top of a drill, them moving closer by clambering over the tops of the machines until he found the perfect place to set up his rifle.

Whilst he did that, the rest of the paladins joined him, all stationing themselves at varying angles and distances from the witch. Everyone fixed their eyes on Keith, who had his hand held up, fist closed, as a symbol to wait. 

Lance held his breath, training his scope on her figure. She had, no doubt, a forcefield of some sort protecting her from harm, so he was to wait until she was preoccupied with the others’ attacks and try to get lucky.

Keith still had his first closed.

Everyone held their breaths. 

Haggar continued transferring energy.

Lance’s heart hammered in his chest.

Keith unfurled his hand and swept it down in a swift movement.

All hell broke loose.

The four on the ground charged towards Haggar as she whipped around with a hoarse screech, eyes kindling a yellow flame. Her hands filled with shadowy energy as she teleported around the paladins, becoming incorporeal as Keith’s sword was swung towards her. Hunk shouted with pain as a ball of energy was sent his way, blasting him backwards, and Pidge ducked just in time as a shadow flew towards her head. 

Haggar cackled. Her scream of “You are all weak! None of you are worthy!” was scattered by the surrounding chaos of battle as Pidge failed to land a strike with her bayard. 

Lance hardly paid attention to any of this, hyper-focusing on the pattern of Haggar’s teleportation; if he was to have any chance of hitting his target, he would need to predict the exact position in which she would appear in advance. He observed that her shield became weaker briefly after each bout of magic – he could use that. A plan unfurled in his head. It was almost impossible, but not quite. If he predicted where the witch would appear and shot there, maybe the bullet would hit her before her forcefield was restored. He would only have a fraction of a fraction of a second, but he was Team Voltron’s sharpshooter goddamnit. If anyone could hit her, it was him.

He continued to watch the battle below and started noticing a rhythm to Haggar’s attacks. She liked to draw in the others, and when they were right on the brink of an offensive manoeuvre, she’d teleport behind them and strike from there. She fought like a coward, Lance seethed. Never facing her opponents, but using sneaky tricks to get a one up. 

A yell from below ripped him from his thoughts. Pidge had been hit – a blow to the leg – and was knocked to the floor. Keith roared in anger, sprinting at the witch with his sword in hand. Haggar smirked. Lance knew what was going to come. He aimed his sniper behind Keith, knowing that if he moved a millimetre the wrong way he’d hit his teammate. He didn’t bother waiting for the witch to disappear – he’d be too late. Instead he just pulled the trigger.

The bullet flew from the barrel in a seamless line, never faltering as the witch appeared right before it. It hit her head.

 

And then it bounced off.

Haggar screamed with rage, lightning swirling around her twisted limbs. She had nearly been killed. If that bullet had been fired a nanotick earlier, and she would be a corpse lying limp on the floor. This was the closest anyone had ever gotten to defeating her. She was impressed. But mostly murderous.

She turned to the direction from which the bullet had flown and spotted the red paladin. He looked… so vulnerable up there. He was so small, perched up on that ledge. Absentmindedly, she teleported closer, away from the other expendables, to get a better look. 

Oh… his eyes… they were even more blue than the dull shine of his armour and shone with absolute terror as she gazed up at him from the ground. As she peered through them, she sensed whispers of doubt and a self-effacing nature. He was beautiful. 

This could be fun. 

If she had her fun without compromising the victory of the Empire… she would. And she knew how. Because this red paladin with the blue eyes that could have had her dead was hers. And he could not escape before she was done with him.

He tried to escape, jumping off the ledge away from her, using his jetpacks to slow the fall. She blasted him in mid-air, shocking him down to Earth where he lay still on the ground. Now he was hers.

Because this magic turned emotional pain into physical pain. It would tear Team Voltron apart and give her paladin a reminder of her every time he was mocked, shamed or failed. 

He’d never nearly kill her again.


End file.
